Project Based Learning: Leonardo Da Vinci and His Ornithopter

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Although the area of flight was a topic T12 would be covering extensively, I thought we’d do a very quick group activity, exploring Leonardo’s fixation with flight and the resulting idea of an ornithopter.  Da Vinci always claimed his earliest memory was of a Kite bird swooping down whilst he was in his cradle.  It was this memory which affected him so much he spent a great deal of time focusing on inventions which would one day allow man to fly.  He said:

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

My plan was to use these two picture books as a fun way to introduce his famous flying machines:

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I read aloud from this book and the children built the ornithopter which came with the book:

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They had some time to explore these two books:

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These are very similar books.  Both include Leonardo’s own writing, so the words the children read on the pages are direct from his own notes.  One of the books contains a 3D card model of each of Da Vinci’s main inventions whilst the other book contains the card pieces which you need in order to construct the models yourself.

Here is the pop up model of the ornithopter:

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And here is the one the children built themselves:

 

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After all this learning, the children were ready to be set loose to create their own flying machines from anything around the house:

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This was a simple and very quick study, which helped T12 on his way for his own study of flight.